Ability sorting and consumer city

This paper provides a consumption-side explanation for the urban wage premium. The paper shows that if the taste for consumption variety is a luxury good, high average wages in large cities can be due to the selection of high-skill workers choosing to live there. A unique implication is that urban wage premiums are decreasing in skills and can even be negative for very high-skill workers. I confirm this implication using data on the health care workers. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.